John Scott-Railton Profile picture
May 26 9 tweets 4 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
Countdown Florida trying to pass a law absolving Neuralink of responsibility for sudden death. Image
Brain interfaces like #Neuralink = fascinating.

What scares me is that Musk does hype.

Fads.

At the expense of safety, accountability, long-termism, and responsibility.

But the brain is an unforgiving bit of tissue where messups are irreversible.
Brain implants make you beholden to their manufacturer & maintainer.

Evidence shows: when people depend on Musk...he doesn't always treat them well.

Entertain for a moment the scenario of a desperate person worried they will displease him by speaking out & be disconnected.
Musk's behavior around Twitter has been so far out of the norm that it makes you wonder.

Just how seriously have regulators & the relevant ethics IRBs considered the implicit power dynamic he carries with him.. and the impact on vulnerable populations in human clinical trials.
The closer Musk got to the operations of Twitter, the more chaos & crisis he brought.

If Neuralink scales up clinical trials & sees success, hard to imagine Musk will be able to resist getting *much more involved.

Caveat implantee.
Let's just google #Neuralink & click to learn more about their Approach.

Oh. Image
It's not like there's precedent for a hyped implant going dark & people being blind or anything.
Should you trust a company to do human research? Look at their track record.

Too much pressure to accelerate = garbage data & comfort with ethical problems.

Which #Neuralink is currently being federally investigated for.

@rachael_levy
reuters.com/technology/mus… Image
Seeing. Hearing. Walking.

The dynamics of power & dependency around tech implants are no joke.

As are the costs of obsolescence or running out of cash to pay for upgrades.

And they happen to the very vulnerable populations.

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More from @jsrailton

May 26
Been seeing these replies everywhere?

It's happening because Musk can't stop bots.

Let me break it down what's going on with this spam. 1./ Image
2/ Reply spammers fight a cat & mouse games with platforms like #Twitter.

One way they get spotted is by the platforms examining links.

If spammers hammer a platform by sending the same link in a thousands replies to the same scam site, it's not hard to spot & scale blocking. Image
3/ Remember spam emails w/misspellings, weird names, blocks of garbage text, mixtures of words & numbers etc?

These were all tactics to avoid spam filtering done by looking at each of these things for patterns.

Each new filtering strategy = new workarounds. ImageImageImage
Read 12 tweets
May 26
Dissidents must continue to live in fear of #Pegasus #spyware thanks to @CreditSuisse.

Which helped them survive US Government blacklisting.

@ajsaeedy @dnvolz
wsj.com/articles/israe… The lenders have been worki...
2/ And don't forget, Happy Gilmore's producer actually co-controls #NSO Group's shell company.

3/ Fraudsters, people doing #HumanTrafficking, torturers, drug traffickers, fraudsters & more.

Add #spyware companies to the list.

If you aren't up to speed on @CreditSuisse doing bad people's banking, start here.

theguardian.com/news/2022/feb/… ImageImageImage
Read 4 tweets
May 26
#TeamOrca sounds pretty organized in how they target sailboats.

archive.iwc.int/pages/view.php… Image
Sounds like sailors increasingly desperate efforts to scare off #TeamOrca might actually be encouraging them further.

Researchers suggest *boats should play dead*

I can't get enough of this Image
Read 6 tweets
May 25
Yeah @expressvpn just made it up.

The VPN industry keeps pumping out security misinformation to drive business.

Regulatory scrutiny needed.👇
Journalists & dissidents are regularly targeted by dictators wielding #Predator spyware.

Some are at physical risk.

When @expressvpn spreads SEO-optimized falsehoods to drive sales, they actually make it harder for these people to find the right information.

Reprehensible.
The VPN industry has tricked people into believing that VPNs are like a magic security talisman.

Spoiler: you can still get hacked, phished and generally messed with if you have a VPN.

This torrent of marketing drives people away from security advice that works.
Read 7 tweets
May 24
Killer whales are hunting & sinking ships near Spain.

And may be teaching others how.

Some researchers speculate it may be a new whale fad.

The Orca equivalent of a TikTok challenge.

@sipappas
scientificamerican.com/article/why-ha… ImageImageImageImage
"two juvenile killer whales went after the rudder while an adult repeatedly rammed the boat... The attack lasted 90 minutes"

They know what they are doing.

Pics of aftermath. You can see an emergency pump running.

Source:
yacht.de/special/seenot… ImageImageImageImage
"Since you wouldn't protect us, we're taking taking matters into our own flippers"

- Killer Whales
Read 11 tweets
May 24
What in the Half Baked is going on?

A Low-budget Hollywood producer w/ties to #China is now co-director of the entity that holds #NSO Group.

Robert Simonds has no history with #spyware, but a bunch of Adam Sandler producer credits. 1/

By @omerka
calcalistech.com/ctechnews/arti… ImageImageImageImage
2/ Here's Robert Simonds on why🇨🇳#China's @TencentGlobal is a great owner of his @STXfilms.

Why is a Hollywood producer w/a history of biz messes & a #MeToo scandal mixed up with the 🇺🇸US sanctioned notorious #Pegasus spyware maker?

3/ Robert Simonds' sudden involvement with an entity identified by the US Government as posing a counterintelligence & national security threat... screams for federal & congressional scrutiny.

Also, where did the funds come from for his #Pegsus / #NSO Group deal? ImageImage
Read 4 tweets

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