Leftovers

• Nico Cartron ☛ The FreeBSD tag is dead, long live the FreeBSD tag!

  So now anything about NetBSD and OpenBSD will no longer have an awkward "FreeBSD" tag at the end of the article.

• Eric Bailey ☛ Organizing a design system via folksonomy

  A folksonomy is a way of organizing things where the people who use the service are allowed to create and apply their own tags to things. Think of Gmail’s labelling capability, or adding hashtags on any number of social media platforms.

  A folksonomy is used as an alternative to a more standard tagging system, in that the creating and stewarding of tags is in the hands of the people who consume the content, and not just the people who create the content.

• Science

  • Doc Searls ☛ Whether Weather

    NOAA (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) is the alpha US source for weather forecasting, ocean science, climate research, and much more. So, as a weather geek, it concerns me when Wired says Dismantling NOAA Threatens the World’s Ability to Monitor Carbon Dioxide Levels: The agency maintains the global backbone of measurements of CO2 and other gases, but these are at risk of being curtailed if the foreshadowed cuts to NOAA are realized.

    So I dug a bit. Here are five threats: [...]

  • [Repeat] Science Alert ☛ We Finally Know Why Ancient Roman Concrete Lasts Thousands of Years

    And it has another benefit: The lime clasts give the concrete remarkable self-healing abilities.

    When cracks form in the concrete, they preferentially travel to the lime clasts, which have a higher surface area than other particles in the matrix. When water gets into the crack, it reacts with the lime to form a solution rich in calcium that dries and hardens as calcium carbonate, gluing the crack back together and preventing it from spreading further.

• Career/Education

  • Techdirt ☛ Trump Administration’s Targeting Of International Students Jeopardizes Free Speech And Privacy Online

    The federal government is using social media surveillance to target student visa holders living in the United States for online speech the Trump administration disfavors. The administration has initiated this new program, called “Catch and Revoke,” in an effort to revoke visas, and it appears to be a cross-agency collaboration between the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Department of Justice. It includes a dedicated task force and the use of AI and other data analytic tools to review the public social media accounts of tens of thousands of student visa holders. Though the full scope remains unclear, current reports indicate that the administration is surveilling for “pro-Hamas” sentiment, “antisemitic activity,” or even just “conduct that bears a hostile attitude toward U.S. citizens or U.S. culture.” At the time of publishing of this blog post, the federal government has already revoked over 1600 student visas for a variety of reasons.

    This social media surveillance program is an alarming attack on freedom of speech and privacy—for both visa holders here in the United States and their American associates.

  • Alex Ewerlöf ☛ Staff archetypes are anti-patterns

    I used those archetypes a lot when I was a new Staff Engineer. I have used it as a reference hundreds of times and shared it with tens of thousands of people.

    But as I gained more experience over the years and across companies, I realized that the most impactful Staff Engineers I know, aren’t any of those archetypes. They’re all. Plus more!

  • CS Monitor ☛ Colleges in the US are facing hurdles. More are hoping free tuition will help.

    At the same time, rising tuition and expenses, the resumption of student loan collections in May by the federal government, and return on investment concerns have made affordability a key issue for students and families.

    In response, tuition-free models are becoming more common – not just as a financial aid solution but also as a strategic marketing tool to stay competitive and attract students.

• Hardware

  • Andrea Contino ☛ Did I just sell a passion?

    Have I sold off a passion? Does letting go of a camera I loved—and still love—make me less of a photographer? I’m not sure. The fact that anyone, anywhere in the world, has the chance to take a life-changing photo gives me hope. But it also makes me think about how the quality of so many of our passions has dropped, just like the quality of a good photo.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Wired ☛ The EPA Is Giving Some Forever Chemicals a Pass

    Last year, the Biden administration released a long-awaited rule setting limits on forever chemicals in municipal drinking water systems. This rule not only mandated low levels for two of the most-studied forever chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, but for four other chemicals that have been linked to a variety of adverse health effects.

    In addition to removing those four other chemicals from the rule, the Trump EPA now says it will give drinking water systems until 2031 to get rid of PFOA and PFOS in the supply—two years after the original deadline of 2029.

  • The Verge ☛ Trump wants to weaken protections against forever chemicals in drinking water

    The Trump administration plans to weaken drinking water rules meant to protect Americans from “forever chemicals” that have been linked to cancer, reproductive risks, liver damage, and other health issues.

• Proprietary

  • Rich Trouton ☛ Apple Filing Protocol client deprecated as of macOS Sequoia 15.5.0

    This announcement is providing a end-of-the-road notification for AFP, which has been included in Apple’s operating systems for the Mac since System 6 in 1988. The ability to run an AFP server was removed from macOS as part of macOS Big Sur and it is not possible to host AFP shares from APFS formatted drives, so the AFP client has been the final functional part of AFP left as of macOS Sequoia.

  • Six Colors ☛ Can we still love Apple? Should we ever have?

    Perhaps this is why I was shocked by the inner sanctum details revealed by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in a suit against Apple by Epic Games. You can read all the back-and-forth details elsewhere, including this very site.

    The upshot is this: Apple was directed to give developers in the United States a pathway to let customers pay for stuff used in the app outside of Apple’s payment system. The judge’s decision was upheld on appeal and the Supreme Court declined a review. In January 2024, Apple unveiled its new system: developers could apply to add links to outside payment web pages, which customers would reach after clicking a scary warning. Apple would collect a mere 27%.

  • Six Colors ☛ Want Apple to add a feature? Pass a law

    When I wrote about switching to the Mac in July of 2023, I lamented the Mac’s lack of support for my language, Slovene. Apple has never gotten around to supporting many languages, but for Slovene, it all changed with iOS 18 and macOS 15. So I am writing this on my Mac Mini with the default language set to my native tongue.

    Why did Apple do this after 18 years of iOS and a thousand years of the Mac? The simple answer is: Regulation works.

    In April of last year, the Slovenian parliament passed a new version of The Public Use of the Slovenian Language Act stating that if you want to sell products in Slovenia, they must “speak” Slovene. Before I discuss the reasoning behind the law, it’s worth explaining why Apple’s past exclusion of Slovene was so unusual.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Futurism ☛ Even Audiobooks Aren't Safe From AI Slop

      It's Audible's biggest foray into AI yet, and will be a major blow for voice actors, who are fighting tooth and nail to win protections against the technology, particularly in the US video games industry, where they are still on strike.

    • Los Angeles Times ☛ Waymo recalls more than 1,200 automated vehicles after minor crashes

      The recall comes after a series of minor crashes with gates, chains and other obstacles in the road that did not result in any injuries, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company said in a filing with the NHTSA. The recall applies to 1,212 driverless vehicles operating on Waymo’s fifth-generation automated driving software.

    • The Register UK ☛ Infosec pros still aren't nailing the basics of AI security

      "And how many, in your deepest of hearts, actually have a good grasp of the security risks involved in AI system controls, by a show of hands?"

      Not a single hand was raised among the 200-strong, security-savvy crowd.

      "So everyone's using generative AI, but no one has a grasp of how secure it is in the system," Garraghan replied. "The cat's out of the bag."

    • Scoop News Group ☛ Copyright office criticizes AI ‘fair use’ before director’s dismissal 

      The register of copyrights cast serious doubt on whether AI companies could legally train their models on copyrighted material. The White House fired her the next day.

    • Security Week ☛ Is AI Use in the Workplace Out of Control?

      Of the 254 AI-enabled apps in use, 7% have been developed by companies based in China.

    • Wired ☛ Microsoft Cuts Off Access to Bing Search Data as It Shifts Focus to Chatbots

      Microsoft quietly announced earlier this week that it plans to shut down a long-standing tool supplying search engine startups and other software developers with a raw feed of Bing search results. The Bing Search APIs, or application programming interfaces, were once vital to many niche Google alternatives, but fell out of favor more recently as Microsoft hiked fees for the service and restricted its use.

    • PC World ☛ Google is testing an 'AI Mode' button in place of 'I'm Feeling Lucky'

      The iconic button may about to be replaced by a new AI Mode button as the search giant aims to move away from traditional search results.

    • Omicron Limited ☛ AI can be a danger to students. Three things universities must do

      As AI becomes embedded in academic life, a troubling reality has emerged: students are extremely vulnerable to its use. They don't know enough about what AI is to be alert to its shortcomings. And they don't know enough about their subject content to make judgments on this anyway. Most importantly, they don't know what they don't know.

      As two academics involved in higher education teaching, we argue that there are four key dangers facing students in today's world of AI.

  • Social Control Media

    • Los Angeles Times ☛ YouTube will air its first exclusive NFL game from Brazil

      YouTube will team up with the NFL for a multiyear deal for the annual Super Bowl Flag Football Game. The event scored more than 6 million live views when YouTube first presented it in February. The game’s teams were led by YouTube stars IShowSpeed and Kai Cenat.

• Entrapment (Microsoft GitHub)

  • Linuxiac ☛ Ubuntu Maker Canonical Donates to Support Open Source Developers [Ed: Bad

    In other words, thanks.dev helps developers get real money from the companies that depend on them. It analyzes GitHub repositories to identify and allocate donations based on the dependencies projects rely on. Its main advantages are: [...]

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • EFF ☛ Montana Becomes First State to Close the Law Enforcement Data Broker Loophole

      Now, with SB 282, Montana has become the first state to close the data broker loophole. This means the government may not use money to get access to information about electronic communications (presumably metadata), the contents of electronic communications, contents of communications sent by a tracking devices, digital information on electronic funds transfers, pseudonymous information, or “sensitive data”, which is defined in Montana as information about a person’s private life, personal associations, religious affiliation, health status, citizen status, biometric data, and precise geolocation. This does not mean information is now fully off limits to police. There are other ways for law enforcement in Montana to gain access to sensitive information: they can get a warrant signed by a judge, they can get consent of the owner to search a digital device, they can get an “investigative subpoena” which unfortunately requires far less justification than an actual warrant.

    • EFF ☛ Stopping States From Passing AI Laws for the Next Decade is a Terrible Idea

      We strongly oppose this. We’ve talked before about why federal preemption of stronger state privacy laws hurts everyone. Many of the same arguments apply here. For one, this would override existing state laws enacted to mitigate against emerging harms from AI use. It would also keep states, which have been more responsive on AI regulatory issues, from reacting to emerging problems.

    • [Repeat] OpenRightsGroup ☛ ORG Responses To Data Intermediaries And Data Brokers Consultations

      The online advertising system has no need to collect such a vast amount of data for delivering advertising. Collecting such an amount of data of that sensibility at that scale and making it available to any third-party who wants it is inherently unsafe, from a national security perspective or otherwise, and constitutes a risk that cannot be managed. Data brokers are the main responsible and enablers of these risks, as they both make data available for “enhancement”, and they set the incentives for adtech intermediaries to collect as much data as possible.

    • NYOB ☛ noyb sends Meta 'cease and desist' letter over AI training. European Class Action as potential next step

      Meta has announced it will use EU personal data from Instagram and Facebook users to train its new AI systems from 27 May onwards. Instead of asking consumers for opt-in consent, Meta relies on an alleged 'legitimate interest' to just suck up all user data. The new EU Collective Redress Directive allows Qualified Entities such as noyb to issue EU-wide injunctions. As a first step, noyb has now sent a formal settlement proposal in the form of a so-called Cease and Desist letter to Meta. Other consumer groups also take action. If injunctions are filed and won, Meta may also be liable for damages to consumers, which could be brought in a separate EU class action. Damages could reach billions. In summary, Meta may face massive legal risks – just because it relies on an "opt-out" instead of an "opt-in" system for AI training.

    • International Business Times ☛ NOYB Threatens Meta With Lawsuit if it Collects Personal Data of Europeans for AI Training Without Consent

      NOYB highlighted in a Wednesday press release that if a company seeks to use personal data, it has to comply with one of six legal bases according to Article 6(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation. The opt-in consent allows users to provide a 'freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous' consent to the processing of data, say no, or even stay silent.

    • IT Wire ☛ iTWire - Can people really listen in on your mobile phone conversations?

      The mobile phone in your hand may feel secure, but could someone be secretly listening in on your conversations? According to cybersecurity expert Vidit Sehgal, founder of Australian mobile tech firm V4 IT, the answer is yes and many people don't even realise it's possible.

    • 404 Media ☛ License Plate Reader Company Flock Is Building a Massive People Lookup Tool, Leak Shows

      Flock, the automatic license plate reader (ALPR) company whose cameras are installed in more than 5,000 communities in the U.S., is building a product that will use people lookup tools, data brokers, and data breaches to “jump from LPR [license plate reader] to person,” allowing police to much more easily identify and track the movements of specific people around the country without a warrant or court order, according to internal Flock presentation slides, Slack chats, and meeting audio obtained by 404 Media.

    • Wired ☛ CFPB Quietly Kills Rule to Shield Americans From Data Brokers

      Data brokers operate within a multibillion-dollar industry built on the collection and sale of detailed personal information—often without individuals’ knowledge or consent. These companies create extensive profiles on nearly every American, including highly sensitive data such as precise location history, political affiliations, and religious beliefs. This information is frequently resold for purposes ranging from marketing to law enforcement surveillance.

    • Android Police ☛ YouTube unveils dystopian AI plan to insert ads when you’re most emotionally vulnerable

      YouTube just showcased a new, AI-based ad placement system called Peak Points, designed to take advantage of a video's most emotionally impactful moments.

    • TechCrunch ☛ YouTube viewers will start seeing ads after ‘peak’ moments in videos | TechCrunch

      Peak Points leverages Google’s Gemini AI to analyze YouTube videos and identify moments it believes have the highest viewer engagement or are most emotionally impactful, and then suggests placing the ad right after it.

    • Ars Technica ☛ Jury orders NSO to pay $167 million for hacking WhatsApp users

      A jury has awarded WhatsApp $167 million in punitive damages in a case the company brought against Israel-based NSO Group for exploiting a software vulnerability that hijacked the phones of thousands of users.

      The verdict, reached Tuesday, comes as a major victory not just for Meta-owned WhatsApp but also for privacy- and security-rights advocates who have long criticized the practices of NSO and other exploit sellers. The jury also awarded WhatsApp $444 million in compensatory damages.

    • Marco F ☛ Leaving the Apple Watch Behind

      My general dissatisfaction, especially with the tech industry and particularly with the ever-declining software quality and Apple’s behavior, led me to the decision to break free from these constraints. It really challenged me mentally. But if I’m honest with myself, closing the rings, the incoming notifications (which I had already significantly minimized), sleep tracking, and all the other functions I used the watch for often stressed me more than they might have helped. Is it really better for my health to put pressure on myself every day to close some rings instead of relaxing and taking it easy in the here and now? I’m really not sure.

• Defence/Aggression

  • New York Times ☛ Judge Allows Deportation of Venezuelans Under Alien Enemies Act

    The president announced the planned change in U.S. policy during a speech at a Saudi investment forum at the start of the first major international trip of his second term. His meeting with Syria’s new leader will take place Wednesday.

  • NYPost ☛ Michael Goodwin: Convicted Felon recklessly accepting a plane from Qatar is the type of unnecessary risk that could ruin his presidency

    Over the years, numerous studies, speeches and books have focused on a phenomenon known as self-sabotage.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Trump's Mob Understands "Skeezy" Better than the Corruption Beat Journalists

    Four days before old man Joe Biden dropped out of the race last summer, I argued that the endless discussion of Joe Biden Old was swamping three far more important stories, starting with whether Donald Trump was a partner, agent, or employee of Saudi Arabia.

  • The Washington Post ☛ Why these tech titans joined Trump in Saudi Arabia

    A cavalcade of tech and business leaders was in Saudi Arabia’s capital for an investment summit presided over by President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

  • Vox ☛ Is it corrupt for Trump to accept a $400 million Qatari jet?

    As past administrations have shown, it’s typical for presidents to accept gifts. But there are still laws in place to ensure that governments, be they foreign or domestic, can’t curry favor with presidents this way. In 1966, Congress passed a law — the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act — to cap the monetary value of a gift the president is allowed to personally accept. As of 2023, that amount is $480.

    This means that the president can accept gifts of any amount on behalf of the country but, after leaving office, they can only keep the gifts that are worth less than $480. If they want to hold on to a more expensive gift, they have to buy it themselves from the government at the estimated market rate. Otherwise, these gifts are typically sent to the National Archives, ultimately transferring ownership to the American people, not any specific individual.

  • BoingBoing ☛ Even Republicans admit Trump’s jet is an unconstitutional bribe

    I am left wondering what this "gift" jet is a distraction from, because it is so fantastically illegal that even Chuck Schumer is abandoning writing sternly worded letters and is instead "doing something" (even though it is still ineffective).

  • YLE ☛ Why are so many data centres popping up in Finland?

    The money generated by data centres in Finland mostly ends up outside of the country. The majority of profits are usually funnelled back into the business to acquire more processors and servers.

    Even though data centre deals are worth billions of euros, only about 20 to 30 percent of the funds remain in the country, according to an estimate by Jouni Salonen, a senior advisor at Business Finland.

    However, that is a rough estimate, due to the competitive nature of the industry, companies behind the centres tend to carry out business as quietly as possible.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ FBI: Man plotted ISIS-inspired mass shooting at Army site in Michigan

    A 19-year-old man was arrested after spending months planning an attack against a U.S. Army site in suburban Detroit on behalf of the Islamic State group, authorities said Wednesday.

  • Sightline Media Group ☛ Former Guardsman arrested for alleged mass shooting plot at Army site

    Said, a recent member of the Michigan Army National Guard, was arrested Tuesday shortly after launching a drone for a final look before an attack, the FBI said in a court filing.

  • Insight Hungary ☛ Orban's promised spring cleaning: New bill targets NGOs and the free press

    After Orban's controversial speech in which he promised a "spring cleaning," Fidesz MP, Janos Halasz, submitted a new bill to parliament moments before midnight that critics say is Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s toughest attack on civil society, 444 reports. The legislation would allow the government’s Sovereignty Protection Office (SPO) to blacklist NGOs, media outlets and other organisations receiving foreign funding. With the elections coming up next year and a growing opposition movement, civil society groups say the timing is no coincidence. The bill shows similarities with Russia’s “foreign agent” law. 

    The legislation would grant the SPO to investigate, monitor, and punish groups deemed a threat to “Hungary’s constitutional identity” or “Christian culture.” That includes organisations promoting gender diversity or public policy reform. Blacklisted groups could be fined up to 25 times the amount of their foreign funding, lose access to tax-deductible donations, and be subject to asset disclosure and inspections. “This follows the Russian pattern: it is about abuse of power and revenge,” said Budapest mayor, Gergely Karácsony.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Scoop News Group ☛ DHS won’t tell Congress how many people it’s cut from CISA

    “You’ve overseen mass reductions in the workforce at CISA and” the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, told DHS Secretary Kristi Noem at a hearing of the panel. “Despite repeated requests from this committee on how many people have been fired or have been bullied into quitting … DHS has refused to share that information.

    “It should worry every American that we do not know how many people are left at FEMA to respond to disasters and how many cyber defenders still work at CISA as China and other adversaries attack our systems every day,” he continued.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • FAIR ☛ ‘Crypto Is the Biggest Corruption Issue With Trump’: CounterSpin interview with Bartlett Naylor on Trump crypto grift

      Janine Jackson interviewed Public Citizen’s Bartlett Naylor about Trump’s crypto grift for the May 9, 2025, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

    • Pro Publica ☛ How the Northwest’s Lagging Green Energy Push Could Affect Its Residents

    • Energy Mix Productions Inc ☛ Massive Blackout in Spain Shows Need for Grid Investment, Battery Storage, Experts Say

      The country’s grid investment lagged other European countries, even as its solar capacity more than doubled over the last five years, the news agency added. “Compounding that challenge, Spain is a power ‘island’, with few of the cross-border cables that help other countries stabilize their networks when things go out of kilter.”

    • Air Force Times ☛ DC military-air traffic control hotline hasn’t worked for over 3 years

      The Federal Aviation Administration official in charge of air traffic controllers, Frank McIntosh, confirmed the agency didn’t even know the hotline hadn’t been working since March 2022 until after the latest near miss. He said civilian controllers still have other means of communicating with their military counterparts through landlines. Still, the FAA insists the hotline be fixed before helicopter flights resume around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

    • Paul Krugman ☛ Is This the Year We Doom Civilization?

      The purpose of these cuts, sadism aside, would be to partially offset the cost of huge tax cuts for the rich — cuts that would still explode the budget deficit. The cruelty is mind-boggling. In fact, I have both a suggestion and a prediction for major media organizations: I’d like to see them do focus groups with ordinary voters, describing these plans. My prediction, based on what we’ve seen in the past, is that many voters will simply refuse to believe the policy descriptions, insisting that elected officials can’t possibly be that vicious.

      But they can be and are.

      And yet the brutality of the cuts to the social safety net isn’t what bothers me most about what’s about to happen to public policy. Even worse is the assault on renewable energy. From the Financial Times: [...]

• Finance

  • Pro Publica ☛ "We Buy Ugly Houses" Franchise’s Loan Scheme Left “Incalculable” Damage

  • Pro Publica ☛ How Trump’s DOE Cuts Could Harm Students With Disabilities in Idaho

    Time and again, the U.S. Department of Education has been the last resort for parents who say the state of Idaho has failed to educate their children. The federal agency in 2023 ordered Idaho to stop blocking some students with learning disabilities, like dyslexia, from special education. That same year, it flagged that the state’s own reviews of districts and charters obscured the fact that just 20% were fully complying with the federal disability law. Last year, it told the state it must end long delays in services for infants and toddlers with disabilities, which could include speech or physical therapy.

    Now President Donald Trump has pledged to dismantle the department.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong declares 6 sites occupied by Beijing’s national security office ‘prohibited places’

    Hong Kong has declared six locations of Beijing’s national security office as “prohibited places,” including four hotels and the office’s future permanent sites in Kowloon.

  • International Business Times ☛ Microsoft Layoffs 2025: 6,000 Axed – Including Roles at This Popular Job Site [Ed: "about 3% of its 228,000 global employees" is false. A lot more.]

    Microsoft announced a major workforce reduction on 14 May 2025, cutting approximately 6,000 jobs, about 3% of its 228,000 global employees. The layoffs, targeting divisions like LinkedIn, Xbox, and software engineering, are the company's largest since 2023.

  • PC World ☛ Microsoft lays off 6,000+ employees for non-performance reasons [Ed: A lot more, due to debt]

    Microsoft plans to cut 1,985 jobs at its Redmond headquarters alone, 1,510 of which will be in the office. One aim is to reduce layers of management, the spokesperson said. Unlike the previous job reduction from January 2025 that hit “low performers,” these layoffs are not performance-related.

  • CNBC ☛ Microsoft laying off about 6,000 people, or 3% of its workforce [Ed: Microsoft plug; the numbers are false]

    In total, it's likely Microsoft's largest round of layoffs since the elimination of 10,000 roles in 2023. In January the company announced a small round of layoffs that were performance-based. These new job cuts are not related to performance, the spokesperson said.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Rolling Stone ☛ Grok Can't Stop Talking About 'White Genocide' in South Africa

      X users asking the AI chatbot a wide variety of questions are finding that it will change the subject to discuss a racial conspiracy theory

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Techdirt ☛ Why The Fuck Are Democrats Helping Build MAGA’s Censorship Machine With KOSA?

    And yet, Democrats seem to act as if none of that is happening, and we can just assume good faith in how KOSA will be implemented and enforced by an FTC that has loudly proclaimed its willingness to conduct partisan, culture war witch hunts on behalf of Project 2025’s goals.

  • The Record ☛ Russian [Internet] shutdown that disrupted essential services condemned by rights groups

    Russian authorities restricted mobile [Internet] access from May 5 to May 9, citing security concerns related to the preparation and celebration of the Victory Day parade in Moscow. During this period, residents across more than 30 regions experienced disrupted or completely absent cellular networks.

    Such blackouts, imposed without public oversight or legal justification, violate fundamental human rights, according to a statement this week by digital rights nonprofit Access Now and 29 other organizations.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • JURIST ☛ EU court rules European Commission wrongly denied New York Times access to Pfizer communications

    The Court of Justice of the European Union General Court (EUCJ) ruled on Wednesday that the European Commission (EC)’s refusal to give the New York Times access to communication exchanges between the EC President and Pfizer was incorrect. The court thereby annulled the EC decision.

  • Court House News ☛ Journalist pushes back on arrest while filming Vegas Trump protest

    “The principles underlying this case are the facts that a member of the public does have a right to disagree with police and officers are not entitled to stop, detain, arrest or use force against citizens to make the citizen listen to them until the citizen agrees,” said Maggie McLetchie of McLetchie Law during oral arguments at the Ninth Circuit’s Phoenix, Arizona, courtroom on Wednesday.

    Nebyou Solomon, a photojournalist for a Las Vegas TV news channel was arrested while trying to film a protest of more than 200 people outside of Trump International Hotel to urge President Donald Trump to release his tax returns.

  • The Dissenter ☛ Indiana State Officials Sued For Blocking Media Access To Executions

    The state of Indiana has a law that blocks journalists from observing executions at the Indiana State Prison. But on May 5, a coalition of media organizations filed a federal lawsuit that seeks to overturn the law as unconstitutional.

  • The Nation ☛ Journalism Schools Are Facing Dual Pressures Under Trump

    The administration’s attacks on both news outlets and universities places journalism schools—and their students—at an alarming intersection. “I think the threat is very high for noncitizen student journalists covering anything to do with Palestine,” said Yemile Bucay, safety and security advisor at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. “The targeting of international students speaking out about Palestinian rights has sent a chill across all students.”

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Truthdig ☛ Trump Asks Congress To Ruin Our National Parks

    “This is short-term thinking at its absolute worst,” said Walt Gasson, a fourth-generation Wyoming hunter and outdoorsman. “We are standing by letting people make decisions for us that don’t reflect our own legacy, what we want to leave for our grandkids.”

  • The Nation ☛ The Right Is Trying to Make the N-Word OK Again

    There simply is no “free speech” principle at issue here. This is about having the power to dehumanize and destroy—about who is allowed to wield violence and who must absorb it. It is not incidental that racist murderer Travis McMichael stood over Ahmaud Arbery’s body as the life bled out of it and made sure the last words he heard were “fucking nigger.” Or that moments before a white stranger murdered James Rone Jr. in 2023, the killer used the word “nigger.” As Deryl Dedmon beat James Anderson, and before killing him by running him over with his truck, he would repeatedly call him a “stupid nigger.” That word has been a prelude to every act of white supremacist violence. When white racists use that word, even when the stakes are merely abusive and not lethal, they do so knowingly—recognizing it as a blood-soaked word with a violent history.

  • Wired ☛ Airbnb Is in Midlife Crisis Mode

    This month, Airbnb will launch the first stage of its more than $200 million reinvention: a panoply of more than 10,000 vendors peddling a swath of services in 260 cities in 30 countries. It is also revitalizing an unsuccessful experiment the company began in 2016: offering bespoke local activities, or what it calls “experiences.” The next stage, launch date unspecified, involves making your profile on Airbnb so robust that it’s “almost like a passport,” as Chesky puts it. After that comes a deep immersion into AI: Inspired by his relationship with Altman, Chesky hopes to build the ultimate agent, a super-concierge who starts off handling customer service and eventually knows you well enough to plan your travel and maybe the rest of your life.

  • IGN ☛ EA Pushes Full Return to Office, Effectively Ends Remote Hiring - IGN

    Electronic Arts has announced to employees that it will be ending its remote working policies permanently, and implementing a full return to office.

  • The Verge ☛ EA is bringing employees back to the office three days per week

    Corporate communications VP Justin Higgs confirmed the new hybrid model to The Verge. “We’ve adopted a globally consistent hybrid work model to bring teams together with greater clarity and intent – enabling faster decisions, sharper execution, and stronger connection to one another,” Higgs says. Hybrid roles will spend “at least three days a week in the office,” though there will be “flexibility” on other roles.

  • Rolling Stone ☛ ICE Used Kids as 'Bait' to Arrest Woman in Worcester, Massachusetts

    Two of the sources independently say that ICE used the undocumented Brazilian woman’s daughters and grandchild as “bait,” in an operation that the Trump administration is now touting as another victory in its sprawling, often lawless crackdown on both legal and illegal immigration.

  • [Old] PBS ☛ Sharecropping | Themes | Slavery by Another Name

    Approximately two-thirds of all sharecroppers were white, and one third were black. Though both groups were at the bottom of the social ladder, sharecroppers began to organize for better working rights, and the integrated Southern Tenant Farmers Union began to gain power in the 1930s. The Great Depression, mechanization, and other factors lead sharecropping to fade away in the 1940s.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Copyrights

  • [Repeat] Digital Music News ☛ SoundCloud Updates Terms Amid AI Training Controversy

    Running with the point, the four-year SoundCloud higher-up confirmed a fresh terms update that looks as though it may put the kibosh on certain “opt-out” requirements. The latter would leave it up to artists and rightsholders to proactively exclude their work from on-platform training.

  • [Repeat] Digital Music News ☛ Music Publishers Accuse Anthropic AI of 'Hallucinating' Citations

    Oppenheim stopped short of accusing Chen of deliberate misconduct, but he emphasized the seriousness of submitting a court document citing AI-generated falsehoods in court. Meanwhile, Anthropic’s legal team has characterized the incident as an accidental citation mistake, noting the incorrect citation seemed to reference the correct article but linked to a different one entirely.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ AI-Powered News Piracy Site Blocked By ISPs After Court Sides With Publishers

    Legal frameworks put in place to protect the audiovisual industries were never likely to exist in a vacuum forever. A coalition of publishers, whose news content was quickly digested, rewritten, and republished on an automated AI-powered news platform, now have a similar ISP blocking order in hand. To have any noticeable effect on this type of piracy, they'll need more than just that.