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Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
@doctorow
May 25, 2023 • 35 tweets • 47 min read • Read on X
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Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: To save the news, shatter ad-tech; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2023/05/25/str…

#Pluralistic

1/ EFF's banner for the save n...
I'm at @HTLGIFestival in #HayOnWye:

28/5 1130h: The AI Enigma
howthelightgetsin.org/events/the-ai-…

29/5 12h: Danger and Desire at the Frontier
howthelightgetsin.org/events/the-dan…

Next, #Oxford!

29/5: @blackwelloxford's 1930h w/@TimHarford:
eventbrite.co.uk/e/cory-doctoro…

2/ Image
To save the news, shatter ad-tech: Structural separation will help the news claim their fair share.



3/ Image: EFF https://www.eff....
Hey look at this

* There's No Antitrust Exception to Statutory Interpretation promarket.org/2023/05/19/the…

* @Bandcamp workers have voted to unionize bandcampunited.org/updates

* Glorious new @foliosociety edition of Hitchhiker's Guide gizmodo.com/hitchhikers-gu…

4/ Image
#20yrsago Turn a floppy into a Klingon ship memex.craphound.com/2003/05/25/tur…

#20yrsago “Facts” about printing and book-design nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/ar…

#20yrsago Dear Hollywood: neener neener web.archive.org/web/2003052417…

5/ Image
#20yrsago @EFF on #TotalInformationAwareness web.archive.org/web/2003052823…

#15yrsago Villagers from three continents will confront @Chevron execs at annual meeting web.archive.org/web/2008052012…

#15yrsago Former @RIAA CEO is the @HuffPost’s new political director wired.com/2008/05/the-hu…

6/ Image
#15yrsago Canadian spooks think punk band “#SuicidePilots” are terrorists web.archive.org/web/2008053002…

#15yrsago #Punk House: communal homes of the anarcho-syndicalist lifestyle web.archive.org/web/2008052617…

#10yrsago Laptop w/thermite self-destruct mechanism hackaday.com/2013/05/23/lap…

7/ Image
#10yrsago 3D-printable model of the cover of #JoyDivision’s “#UnknownPleasures” web.archive.org/web/2013060716…

#10yrsago Game designer creates a never-played-by-humans titanium boardgame and buries it for play in 2700 years polygon.com/2013/3/28/4157…

8/ Image
#10yrsago Hardwood #Escher tesselated interlocking lizard tiles evolulignum.blogspot.com/2011/02/diseno…

#10yrsago How London cops use social media to spy on protest movements itnews.com.au/news/police-ta…

#10yrsago Vermont passes anti-#PatentTroll law cbc.ca/news/business/…

9/ Image
#10yrsago #RIAA losing money, firing employees, giving execs raises torrentfreak.com/riaa-makes-dra…

#10yrsago Forging £1 coins is apparently profitable bbc.com/news/uk-englan…

10/ Image
#10yrsago Globe and Mail: Toronto Mayor #RobFord’s family are, variously, a drug kingpin, a gangster, and affiliated with the KKK theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/g…

#10yrsago Lamps made from cassette tapes cassetteisnotdead.com

11/ Image
#5yrsago A guide to the valuable electronics inside #Bird’s illegal-in-San Francisco scooters jwz.org/blog/2018/05/l…

#5yrsago #Facebook is worth much less to its users than search and email, but it keeps a larger share of the value timharford.com/2018/05/how-mu…

12/ Image
#5yrsago The paleocomputing miracle of the 76477 #SpaceInvaders sound effects chip righto.com/2018/05/inside…

#5yrsago Texas high-school principal fires award-winning, nationally famous journalism teacher to rein in critical student newspaper reporting splc.org/2018/05/0522pr…

13/ Image
#5yrsago 500,000 home routers have been infected with #VPNFilter, malware that steals data and bricks devices arstechnica.com/information-te…

#5yrsago The #FBI’s mountain of uncrackable #crimephones was nearly entirely imaginary emptywheel.net/2018/05/23/did…

14/ Image
#5yrsago A free internet is a configurable internet oreilly.com/content/cory-d…

#5yrsago The Democratic candidate for the Georgia governorship is a Black woman running on an “unapologetic progressive” platform web.archive.org/web/2018052306…

15/ Image
#5yrsago A hard look at the wastefulness of “#ProofOfWork,” the idea at the core of the blockchain davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/201…

#5yrsago @cstross on the “soft genocide” of eugenics-tainted, alt-right climate dystopia antipope.org/charlie/blog-s…

16/ Image
#5yrsago @ComputerHistory Museum just published the sourcecode for #Eudora computerhistory.org/blog/the-eudor…

#5yrsago The company that made #GrenfellTower’s flammable, poisonous insulation used dangerous lies to make hundreds of sales independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…

17/ Image
#5yrsago Court rules that Trump can’t block people on Twitter eff.org/press/releases…

#5yrsago @comcast’s $1.2b/year #ModemRental scam picks your pocket, then exposes you to hackers, stalkers and identity thieves vice.com/en/article/mbk…

18/ Image
#5yrsago Cable industry attains the impossible: makes Americans hate it even more vice.com/en/article/7xm…

#5yrsago Mining the #PanamaPapers and other leaks to reveal the hidden looting of West Africa by its corrupt elite icij.org/investigations…

19/ Image
#5yrsago Why “#leftism” is parting ways with “liberalism” and what it means for the future of American politics nymag.com/intelligencer/…

#5yrsago Debugging #AI is a “hard problem” ai.stanford.edu/~zayd/why-is-m…

20/ Image
#5yrsago FBI sinkholes a key domain used by the malware that infected 500,000 home routers, declares partial victory and Russian attribution thedailybeast.com/exclusive-fbi-…

#5yrsago Thoughtful, devastating critique of #JordanPeterson’s “12 Rules for Life” web.archive.org/web/2021031013…

21/
#1yrago @HSBC: "Who cares if Miami is underwater?" pluralistic.net/2022/05/24/mor…

#1yrago #SPACs were hugely successful (for banks) pluralistic.net/2022/05/23/you…

#1yrago #KimStanleyRobinson's "The High Sierra" pluralistic.net/2022/05/25/the…

23/ Image
#1yrago Talking with Kim Stanley Robinson about "The High Sierra" pluralistic.net/2022/05/25/the…

24/ Image
Monday's threads: Justice Warriors; and more!



25/ Image
My latest nonfiction 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…

26/
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/

27/ Image
Upcoming appearances:

* @HTLGIFestival (#Hay), 5/28
howthelightgetsin.org/events/the-ai-…

* @HTLGIFestival (#Hay), 5/29
howthelightgetsin.org/events/the-dan…

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

28/ Image
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

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

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

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

29/ 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…

* Otherland event for Red Team Blues, 6/8 (#Berlin)
otherland-berlin.de/de/event-detai…

30/ Image
Recent appearances:

* @machinekillspod
soundcloud.com/thismachinekil…

* How Big Tech Captured Culture (@TheAgenda)


* Enshittification Part 3: Saving The Internet (@onthemedia)
wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/s…

31/ 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/2023/05/25/str…

32/
If you're a @Medium subscriber, you can read these essays - and previews of upcoming magazine columns and early exclusives on doctorow.medium.com.

33/
My latest @Medium column is "Rich People's Gain is Worth Less Than Poor People's Pain: A new way to think about utilitarianism, courtesy of the Office of Management and Budget"

doctorow.medium.com/rich-peoples-g…

34/
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…

35/
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/

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More from @doctorow

Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Feb 9
It's hard to talk about the Epstein class without thinking about "The Economy" (in the sense of a mystical, free-floating entity whose health or sickness determines the outcomes for all of us, whom we must make sacrifices to if we are to prosper).

1/ A detail of a US $100 bill. Jeffrey Epstein's mugshot has been overlaid over Benjamin Franklin's portrait. Peter Theil's portrait has been swapped for the US Dept of Treasury seal. Trump's signature has been swapped for the US Treasurer's signature. The line of zeroes after the 100, top and bottom, has been extended to the edge of the image. The image has been roughed up and recolored in a hellish mix of reds and yellows. Image: Gage Skidmore (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_Thiel_(51876609719).jpg CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/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/2026/02/09/slo…

2/
As nebulous as "The Economy" is as an entity, there's an economic priesthood that claims it can measure and even alter the course of the economy using complex mathematics. We probably won't ever understand their methods, but we can at least follow an indicator or two.

3/
Read 31 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Jan 26
The best summary of Trump's trade "philosophy" comes from Trashfuture's November Kelly, who said that Trump is flipping over the table in a poker game that's rigged in his favor because he resents having to pretend to play the game at all.

1/ A detail from a US $100 bill. The bill has been tinted orange. Ben Franklin's face has been replaced with an indistinct blur surmounted by Trump's hair. The lettering in the scrollwork beneath the portrait reads 'TRUMP.' The '100's have been turned into '000's. The writing 'ONE HUNDRED' now reads 'NONE HUNDRED.' The series issue has been changed to '47.' The Secretary of the Treasury's signature has been replaced with Trump's.
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/2026/01/26/i-d…

2/
After all, the global system of trade was designed and enforced by American officials, especially the US Trade Representative.

3/
Read 84 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Jan 17
Ireland is a tax haven. In the 1970s and 1980s, life in the civil-war wracked country was hard - between poverty, scarce employment and civil unrest, the country hemorrhaged its best and brightest. As the saying went, "Ireland's top export is the Irish."

1/ A green Irish pillarbox, standing before a verdant, rolling Irish countryside. The pillarbox is emblazoned with the poop emoji from the cover of 'Enshittification,' with angry eyebrows and a grawlix-scrawled black bar over its mouth. Image: Stuart Caie (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Double_aperture_Irish_pillar_box_in_Dublin_2008.jpg CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en -- Sourabh.biswas003 (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PXL_20231216_105219694-Ballygalley_Larne_UK-_Irish_Countryside-Northern_Ireland_06.jpg CC BY-SA 3.0 ht...
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/2026/01/17/eri…

2/
In desperation, Ireland's political class hit on a wild gambit: they would weaponize Ireland's sovereignty in service to corporate tax evasion.

3/
Read 35 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Jan 6
Code is a liability (not an asset). Tech bosses don't understand this. They think AI is great because it produces 10,000 times more code than a programmer, but that just means it's producing 10,000 times more liabilities.

1/ A shredder, shredding a giant US$100 bill. Benjamin Franklin's head has been replaced with a cliched 'hacker in a hoodie' illustration. The machine's faceplate bears the Claude Code wordmark. The background is 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/2026/01/06/100…

2/
AI is the asbestos we're shoveling into the walls of our high-tech society:



Code is a liability. Code's *capabilities* are assets.

3/pluralistic.net/2025/09/27/eco…
Read 48 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Dec 16, 2025
We are about to get a "post-American internet," because we are entering a post-American *era* and a post-American *world*. Some of that is Trump's doing, and some of that is down to his predecessors.

1/ Uncle Sam staring into a funhouse mirror that has made him painfully thin. The reflection is wearing a Trump wig and has orange skin. He stands atop a map of the world that stretches to infinity. In the background is a shantytown with the TRUMP logomark rising in the sky over it.
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/2025/12/16/k-s…

2/
When we think about the American century, we rightly focus on America's hard power - the invasions, military bases, arms exports, and CIA coups.

3/
Read 86 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Dec 13, 2025
Look, I'm not trying to say that new technologies *never* raise gnarly new legal questions. But what I *am* saying is that a lot of the time, the "new legal challenges" raised by technology are somewhere between 95-100% bullshit.

1/ A modified FBI badge. It now reads 'Federal Wallet Investigators.' It is made out to 'Timothy J Shotspotter.' It is held in the three-fingered, gloved grip of a cartoon character. Around its edges, we see a cartoon room from a public domain Betty Boop cartoon.
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/2025/12/13/unc…

2/
It's ginned up by none-too-bright tech bros and their investors, and then swallowed by regulators and lawmakers who are either so credulous they'd lose a game of peek-a-boo, or (likely) in on the scam.

3/
Read 68 tweets

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