Simon Clark

Doctorow argues that a right of exit is enough, and then hedges by accepting that some harassment is so bad it should be policed. His focus on making capitalist discipline work makes sense but I still don't see why platforms should not be held to normal product safety standards as well.

I am finding much to admire in Doctorow's #enshittification, but remain baffled by his opposition to enforcing content standards. All vendors are liable to private actions for tort bar platforms shielded by #Section230; platforms break their own promises and then hide their failures.

Reading Cory Doctorow's latest: #enshittification. Takes until page 138 to get to his first policy fight but it's a good one: repeal Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) which makes breaking digital locks a crime.

7 Allegations Against Meta in Newly Unsealed Filings Court filings allege Meta tolerated sex trafficking, hid harms to teens, and prioritized growth over user safety for years.

Sex trafficking on Meta platforms was both difficult to report and widely tolerated. Instagram’s former head of safety testified that when she joined Meta in 2020 she was shocked to learn the company had a “17x” strike policy for accounts that engaged in the “trafficking of humans for sex.”

Truly excellent thread on the importance of having a plan, and the courage to see it through. @ruthcadbury.bsky.social is making the same point that @stephenkb.bsky.social has been hammering for a while

@raskin.house.gov has something to say

Vital distinction

The American people’s revulsion at Trump’s upwards wealth distinction, naked corruption, and authoritarianism show that it’s a winning issue.

Epstein provides a horrific look inside the moral rot that underpins it.

A useful thread with well deserved 👏🏼 for @mattduss.bsky.social work on fighting kleptocracy

New post from @ldfreedman.bsky.social

Will Russians continue to support the war?
Will 2026 be a crunch year?
Will the Ukranians be able to counter-attack?

Answering your questions part 2

Covers all of this...

(£/free trial)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/w...

...It had underestimated countries' proclivity to compete for power. It had neglected the voice of grassroots citizens."

Useful summary in Goodbye Globalization by @elisabethbraw.bsky.social

"Post-Cold War globalization had been an honourable undertaking, and it had benefited countless people, but it had run its course. It hadn't taken the climate into account. It had overestimated democracy's power to convert...

Take a look at this extraordinary story by the @financialtimes.com investigations star Alison Killing:
End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled
Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...

For me, it is objectively ridiculous that the UK left knows and cares a lot more about Zohran Mamdani than it does about Pedro Sánchez - the left-wing Prime Minister of Europe's fastest growing economy.

Precisely

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

I've given my new Senator a lot of shit on here. But I don't think anyone with power has laid out the stakes of what we're facing as clearly as she does right here.

And if she's saying this, it's because she feels she must.

The amount of hate spread online is enormous - the tech sector needs to respond.

Imran Ahmed, CEO of CCDH, on the danger of generative AI:

“It is the nuclear age of disinformation and hate.”

“We haven’t come close to comprehending what happens next without intervention.”

Reform UK, the Russian spy and rolls of Kremlin cash: the inside story of Nathan Gill How did a former Mormon bishop end up pleading guilty to taking bribes to make statements in favour of Russia in the European parliament?

www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

Good reporting on Russian influence operations

Members consider the situation in Ukraine Russo-Ukrainian War at heart of Lords debate. Find out more

A powerful debate today showing the strong bipartisan support for Ukraine - because it’s in the UK’s national interest. I made two main points. First, a ceasefire will only come when Putin concludes that pressure on Russia is jeopardising his hold on power. 1/6 www.parliament.uk/business/new...

@theonion.com remains undefeated.

Gray-Lipped RFK Jr. Touts Body’s Natural Ability To Transmute Lead Into Gold WASHINGTON—Praising the process as yet another miracle of biology that modern medicine chooses to ignore, a gray-lipped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at a press conference Wednesday during which he tout...

“The human body is able to do some incredible things if you consume enough lead,” said the secretary of health and human services

"In the twenty-first century, the decisive rift is becoming that between humans and machines. To what extent should our lives be subject to powerful digital systems - and on what conditions?"

"Rather than artificial intelligence, AI is actually a form of authoritarian intelligence, centralizing data and transforming it into power."

...those imposed by the platforms. Consequently, the fate of our democracies is being played out increasingly in a sort of digital Somalia, a bankrupt state the size of the planet, at the mercy of the overlords of online warfare and their militias."

"When political competition took place in the real world, in public squares and on traditional media, each country's customs and regulations could determine its limits, but now that it has moved online, public debate has become a free-for-all where everything is permitted and the only rules are...

Reading Giuliano Da Empoli's latest book. His description of meeting Biden at UNGA is brutal: "The last transatlantic president, the last Cold War combatant, the last internationalist, and yet the result of his foreign policy is a pile of rubble."

@sundersays.bsky.social should be happy with this

Wikipedia Volunteers Avert Tragedy by Taking Down Gunman at Conference

goddamn is there anything Wikipedia editors can’t do www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/n...