Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Apr 20, 2023 31 tweets 37 min read Read on X
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Company that makes millions spying on students will get to sue a whistleblower; Red Team Blues Chapter One, part four; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2023/04/20/lin…

#Pluralistic

1/  Image: Ingo Bernhardt http...
Today (Apr 21), I'm speaking in #Chicago at the @StiglerCenter's #Antitrust and #Competition Conference:

chicagobooth.edu/research/stigl…

This weekend (Apr 23/24), I'm at the @latimes #Bookfest:

events.latimes.com/festivalofbook…

2/
Company that makes millions spying on students will get to sue a whistleblower: The BC Appeals Court drops a *terrible* decision in Ian Linkletter's anti-SLAPP against Proctorio.



3/  Image: Ingo Bernhardt http...
Red Team Blues Chapter One, part four: "I was pickpocketed, guv'nah!"



4/ Image
Hey look at this

* Just about everyone can get money from Facebook class settlement sfgate.com/tech/article/h… (h/t @jwz)

5/ Image
#10yrsago San Diego cop smashes phone & beats up suspect: “Phones can be converted to a weapon. Look it up online.”

#5yrsago China escalates the war on jaywalkers with automated shouting laser/squirtguns tied to motion-sensors straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia…

6/ Image
#5yrsago Koch-backed #ClimateDeniers are exploiting the #ReproducibilityCrisis to discredit climate science wired.com/story/sciences…

#5yrsago The @FDA is finally doing something about the medical device security dumpster-fire bleepingcomputer.com/news/governmen…

7/ Image
#5yrsago @palantir has figured out how to make money by using algorithms to ascribe guilt to people, now they’re looking for new customers bloomberg.com/features/2018-…

8/ Image
#5yrsago Last summer, Southwest tried to kill a rule that would have tightened up engine fan blade inspections arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20…

#5yrsago Arizona is about to get its first statewide #TeachersStrike thehill.com/homenews/state…

9/ Image
#5yrsago @WellsFargo loses teachers’ union business after it pledges its eternal loyalty to gun manufacturers washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sh…

#5yrsago Wells Fargo fined $1B for stealing cars and jacking houses money.cnn.com/2018/04/20/new…

10/ Image
Yesterday's threads: Iowa's starvation strategy; The Red Team Blues tour; Red Team Blues Chapter One, part three; and more!



12/  Image: Iqkotze (modified) ...
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…

13/
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…

14/
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/

15/ Image
Upcoming appearances:

* Antitrust and Competition Conference - Beyond the Consumer Welfare Standard (#Chicago), 4/20-21
chicagobooth.edu/research/stigl…

* @latimesfob #BookFest (#LosAngeles), 4/22-23
events.latimes.com/festivalofbook…

16/ Image
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Red Team Blues at @MystGalaxyBooks (#SanDiego), 4/25
mystgalaxy.com/event/42523Doc…

* Red Team Blues at @DarkDel (#Burbank), 4/26
darkdel.com/store/p2873/We…

17/ Image
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Red Team Blues at @SFPublicLibrary with @Annaleen (#SanFrancisco), 4/30
sfpl.org/events/2023/04…

* Red Team Blues at @Powell's with @waxy (#PDX/Cedar Hills Crossing), 5/2
powells.com/book/red-team-…

18/ Image
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* @publicknowledge Emerging Tech keynote (#DC), 5/22
eventbrite.com/e/emerging-tec…

* #WEPFest with @RonDeibert, @hockeyesque and @DrNancyOlivieri (#Toronto), 5/23
westendphoenix.com/shop/wepfest-s…

21/ Image
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Red Team Blues event with @TimHarford (#Oxford), 5/29
eventbrite.co.uk/e/cory-doctoro…

* Red Team Blues event with @christreilly (#Nottingham), 5/30
waterstones.com/events/an-even…

23/ Image
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Red Team Blues event with @cubicgarden (#Manchester), 5/31
waterstones.com/events/in-conv…

* @uclcs Peter Kirstein Lecture, 6/1 (#London):
eventbrite.co.uk/e/peter-kirste…

* @CymeraF, 6/3 (#Edinburgh)
cymerafestival.co.uk/cymera23-event…

24/ Image
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Red Team Blues with @Marthalanefox at the @bl, 6/5 (#London):
bl.uk/events/an-even…

* @republica keynote, 6/7 (#Berlin)
re-publica.com/de/news/rp23-k… Image
Recent appearances:

* Slingshot
thesling.org/video/slingsho…

* @iftf Future Now
soundcloud.com/institute-for-…

* Examining capitalism's chokepoints (@changelog)
changelog.com/podcast/535

26/ Image
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/2023/04/20/lin…

27/
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.

28/
My latest @Medium column is "How To Make the Least-Worst Mastodon Threads: (An opinionated guide) (for the perplexed)"

doctorow.medium.com/how-to-make-th…

29/
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: mail.flarn.com/mailman/listin…

30/
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).

eof/

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK

Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

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

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(